Was Wyatt Earp a Cold Blooded Murderer?

yes, and a lifelong criminal too. far more of a prolific criminal than the clantons. judges, especially back then, typically take the “lawmans” word more than the accused

http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2014/12/wyatt-earp-great-american-villain/

Many of the comments above are made without historical context and based on pure faith, with no real research or understanding of the times. Real research means you follow a certain protocol that is agreed on by professionals. It doesn't mean that you visit a town and read a few historical documents. The intrinsic factor in the Wild West was that the strong or most cunning survived. The rule of law did not exist in the Wild West. Things were not black and white, it was all about survival. Survival many times is found in a situation that is full of fear and panic. I don't believe there were very many shoot outs like the OK Corral. but there was alot of back shooting. The fact that the Earps confronted the Cowboys (who were a loosely knit group of crooks) was noble and if the Earps had disarmed the Cowboys, it would have been just another day in the Wild West. The vendetta ride was that and self protection. They rode seeking vengeance to protect themselves from further harm and murder. This behavior at the time was outwardly spoken against , but pretty much expected. With all that said I think that Wyatt Earp did things to survive in a hostile time. I would have liked to meet Wyatt Earp. I think he would be a fascinating person.

Wyatt Earp = murderer
George Armstrong Custer = mass murderer

enough said.

Wyatt Earp nothin but a murderer just like George A. Custer was a mass murderer

People need to quit taking what they see in the movies as fact and do some research.
The law was not always around and what was there was a lot of corruption.
Mostly those towns were small and as in some country towns even today most of the population were related to each other. I lived in a town such as that. If you were an outsider you had to watch what you said about you said about someone because you could be talking to that person's kin. Back then and on into the last century people lived and died by the feud. Because as the case of the Hatfields and the McCoys there was no justice thru the courts, because of the reason I just stated. So they had to take the law into their own hands. In the "old west" the one with the money had the run of the courts, politicians etc. It was that way in Lincoln County, New Mexico were Billy to the Kid and his men were from. Also the range wars in Wyoming and so on. You can not understand what really happened over a hundred years if you do not realize that that was a different time and a different age. It was wide open territory. Your nearest neighbor might have been 10 miles away. People had to protect their family, livestock and possession with a gun.

Background: Now retired and resigned from the Bar so no longer a lawyer, but i spent over 30 years packing a Bar Card and a lot of my time was spent doing criminal defense. That doubtless affects the way I look at a lot of things, including the Earp-Clanton dispute.

So - nobody here was there, nobody here has first-hand knowledge of the people or events. We all have to go on accounts (some by participants or witnesses, most of whom had reason to tell it one way or another, and not necessarily the truth).

So - I've been in Tombstone and compared the ground with accounts (including Spicer's from the "trial" he conducted, PROBABLY the best on timing and geography). Have read many literary accounts. And reached some conclusions. These include that the Clantons, Ringo (actually, apparently, Ringgold and a killer from the Mason County "Hoodoo War' feud in Texas), and the other "Cowboys" were bad and wicked people, cattle rustlers and raiders of Mexican smuggling caravans. "Old Man" Clanton was apparently killed by Mexicans who objected to the raiding. They weren't much worse than a lot of other folks, and crossed the wrong bunch when they tangled with the Earps.

Another was that the Earps, Holiday, and friends (Buckskin Frank Leslie, et al) were nobody to cross. Holiday didn't, probably, kill many people. Two for sure, probably a few beyond that, but unquestionably a man who didn't see any future for himself and apparently didn't care. Not about himself and apparently not many others . I've known people like that, they are apt to be dangerous. And poor folk to be around.

So - OK Corral. Both parties were more than ready to have what Charlie Askins used to call a serious social dispute. Neither really much expected it that day (especially Ike, who ran - smart of him), but when they encountered one another, they dealt with the matter with guns. One of the MacLaurys was, I think, the fella who lit the fuze by trying to pull a rifle (getting a rifle was a good idea IMO, long guns are usually better; a machine gun better still if you have one), but the Earp grup did a better job. There after, Cowboy (Clanton) faction went for the Earps and crippled one and killed another (ambushes). Wyatt and a number of friends went for the other side, not wanted to get murdered themselves. In the course of the so-called "Vengeance Ride' they killed or scared a bunch of the Cowboys and then left Arizona. never to return (and with warrants outstanding, warrants nobody ever seemed to try and execute).

Admirable people? Not particularly. Heroes? Don't think so. Would I have represented Wyatt if I'd been a lawyer back then? Sure, if he hired me.

People, Wyatt was only what the media made of him. Only what Hollywood wants to make him out to be. In truth. He was a pimp, he ran girls in Dodge city. that is where he meet and hooked up with Mattie. But this was common back then in those days. Wyatt had it in for the Cowboys and Sheriff Behan. Wyatt was mad because Behan won the election for sheriff in Cochise County. Behan had told Wyatt he would make him First Deputy. But when Behan won, he did not come threw on his promise. Wyatt was never famous before the Gunfight, none of the were. This didn't happen until lake wrote a book in 1931. Then the movie "Frontier Marshal". that is what really made Wyatt and Doc famous. They didn't even call it Gunfight at the O.K. Corral until 1957 when John ford made the movie with that name. from then on people started referring it to the Gunfight of the o.K. Corral. It really happen by C,S, Fly's photography studio. So, Gunfight at Fly's doesn't have the same ring to it. the fact is, famous, no, maybe in Tombstone, but elsewhere, no. That happy many many years later, and many many many many different versions.

Did wyatt earp kill any other people before dodge city or after tombstone, according to a quote from Glen g boyer he says he killed an extra 2 people besides george hoyt, 3 ok corral men, and the 4 vendetta ride cowboys.